I didn't get to play, I watched while Russ and Susan did, and it looked pretty sweet. They way they've payed homage to the old fallout combat system (with VATS), yet put in the real-time combat choice for those who are more about guns blazin' seems pretty sweet. Granted, they only had about 20 minutes hands-on time, so I'm curious to know how the duel combat systems will play out for the whole game.

I also cannot believe that Nick picked up our singing on audio. *hides*

"There is me: That is the Vault Dweller, and my three droogies, that is Ian, Tycho and Dogmeat (Dogmeat being the real dog-like one), and we sat in the Maltese Falcon trying to make up our rasudoks about what to do"

If that's not the opening scene I'm going to be seriously disappointed

I only got a few minutes of combat during my play time. I foolishly went into the town with the nuke in the middle of it and tried to set the nuke off (couldn't - my electronics skill wasn't high enough). But they pointed me in the direction of a good fight and I had a blast with it. The VATS system is fun. I'll need some more time with it to decide if it's EXACTLY ENOUGH like the old school system, but I suspect I won't really care all that much. The game looks and sounds beautiful and I had a good time with it for the time I had.

Honestly, I expect the major gripe most folks will have with the game will be that's it's going to be less punishingly difficult than the originals. I don't expect you'll die, or be put in situations where you could, as often as you did with Fallout. Some will say this is a perversion or something, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Damnit! I was hoping it would be another Brotherhood Of Steel so that the banning doesn't seem as great. But Fallout 3 looks so awesome. Damn you faulty Australian politics.

Russ Pitts:Honestly, I expect the major gripe most folks will have with the game will be that's it's going to be less punishingly difficult than the originals. I don't expect you'll die, or be put in situations where you could, as often as you did with Fallout. Some will say this is a perversion or something, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Russ Pitts:Honestly, I expect the major gripe most folks will have with the game will be that's it's going to be less punishingly difficult than the originals. I don't expect you'll die, or be put in situations where you could, as often as you did with Fallout. Some will say this is a perversion or something, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Well damn, half of what made it so gritty and post-apocalyptic is that you can get your ass handed to you at any given time by something bigger, nastier, and tougher than you. But if they make it so you have a choice between the game nannying you and old-fashioned brutality, that'll be fantastic.

Also, setting off nukes using character skills? Sounds downright excellent.

aegis7:I'm kind of leery of the violence level in Fallout 3. The violence in an older game is a lot less lifelike and a lot farther off. Is there an option to turn off the gore?

Are we thinking of the same game? The Fallout I remember had people getting gaping holes blown out of them them with shotguns, being blown in to giblets by rocket launchers and sliced in half by lasers. All done with sickening sound effects.

Russ Pitts:I only got a few minutes of combat during my play time. I foolishly went into the town with the nuke in the middle of it and tried to set the nuke off (couldn't - my electronics skill wasn't high enough). But they pointed me in the direction of a good fight and I had a blast with it. The VATS system is fun. I'll need some more time with it to decide if it's EXACTLY ENOUGH like the old school system, but I suspect I won't really care all that much. The game looks and sounds beautiful and I had a good time with it for the time I had.

Honestly, I expect the major gripe most folks will have with the game will be that's it's going to be less punishingly difficult than the originals. I don't expect you'll die, or be put in situations where you could, as often as you did with Fallout. Some will say this is a perversion or something, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

One of my biggest problems with the old games was that they were just to damn hard for me. Difficulty options ftw!

Saevus:I'm not troubled by the idea that they "don't love" the Fallout franchise, as Todd Howard addressed it - I'm troubled by how severely they could, and seem like they just might, dilute it.

Also, I second the need for system requirements; God knows it'll take at least two or three months of saving to get the appropriate hardware.

They have dilute it removing several skills and stuff, its not FO anymore but a shooter with RPG features, at least it will be more RPG than BIoshock but what they have done to mainstreamize it is saddening.

I mean melee now goes to damage there is no throwing skill, subtleties like groin hits and the wit laden info box are gone, the writing will be only as good as beth normal stuff which can be rather generic at times....I know I am nit picking but it has to be said its not FO they made but TES 4.5 with guns....

Russ Pitts:I only got a few minutes of combat during my play time. I foolishly went into the town with the nuke in the middle of it and tried to set the nuke off (couldn't - my electronics skill wasn't high enough). But they pointed me in the direction of a good fight and I had a blast with it. The VATS system is fun. I'll need some more time with it to decide if it's EXACTLY ENOUGH like the old school system, but I suspect I won't really care all that much. The game looks and sounds beautiful and I had a good time with it for the time I had.

Honestly, I expect the major gripe most folks will have with the game will be that's it's going to be less punishingly difficult than the originals. I don't expect you'll die, or be put in situations where you could, as often as you did with Fallout. Some will say this is a perversion or something, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

From what I have seen they tossed out so much of what made FO a great series, this watered down FPS RPG thing they have made is just not FO, then again I am not fond of 70% of the things done in modern game design and most of that is due to the degerdation of qaulity brought about by making the game the saturate most of the market it can....

Todd has stated in a video interview, that they recognized oblivion's sparse dialogue and they said they are making a strong effort to raise it to the level or at least approach the level of the original fallouts.

Well the 25 seconds of Fallout that we were able to see looked good, but it seems like they are holding back or hiding something. Is it just that they don't have anymore gameshots to show, or is it the editing staff that decided some dude talking in front of Predator was more important than the actual game?

I'm going to be getting the original Fallout for some backstory and because they seem like a lot of fun. Seriously though, five hundred endings for Fallout 3 is amazing! Also I can't wait to see what they do with Fallout 4. Yes you heard me right. Bethesda's making Fallout 4.

Apparently the Bethesda offices are in Washington D.C. because you can visit them. It would be cool if you could go to Todd's offices and he was a ghoul and on his computer was a screen shot for Fallout 4 or something. That would be really cool.